Bullying

May 19, 2011

The Miami Herald found that special homes for people with mental illness are often shoddily run, with residents left without critical psychiatric and medical help.

By Carol Marbin Miller, Rob Barry and Michael Sallah

For the residents of Hillandale, punishment was swift and painful: violent takedowns, powerful tranquilizers that made them stumble and drool, and staffers who would scream and tackle them when they misbehaved.

Last April, the staff protested the removal of a 47-year-old man — frail and mentally retarded — who said he wanted to move, while residents shouted and blocked the path of state workers trying to safely escort him from the home.

While most assisted-living facilities (ALFs) are designed to care for the elderly — providing help with everyday tasks — Florida licenses facilities like Hillandale to also care for people with severe mental illness. Created a generation ago, the special homes were the state’s answer to providing housing for thousands left in the streets after the historic closings of Florida’s psychiatric institutions.

But The Miami Herald found dozens of the homes are so poorly run that residents are forced to languish without crucial needs — including medication and psychiatric help — leaving their care to police and rescue workers.

The Herald’s examination of Florida’s 1,083 homes for people with mental illness, including a review of state inspection reports, police investigations, court records and interviews with mental health experts, found:

• Regulators find nearly twice the rate of abuse and neglect at the special homes, including caretakers beating and sexually molesting residents.

• State agents have caught nearly 100 homes using illegal restraints since 2002 — including doping residents with tranquilizers without doctor’s approval, tying them with ropes and locking them in isolation rooms — only to catch them doing it again.

• Florida’s requirements to run a home for people with mental illnesses are among the lowest in the nation: a high school diploma and 26 hours of training — less than the state requirements for barbers, cosmetologists and auctioneers.

• Caretakers are routinely caught intoxicated, asleep and even abandoning their posts entirely — often with severe consequences to residents, but rarely to the operators.

March 25, 2011

The 2011 AAPD Image Award was received by the Cast and Creative Team of Fox's Television show Glee. In attendance at the Gala was recurring cast member Lauren Potter, an actress with Down Syndrome who portrays the character Becky Jackson, cheerleader and assistant to Sue Sylvester. In her acceptance speech, Potter spoke out against the pervasive bullying of people with disabilities and directed the audience to join her campaign at www.AbilityPath.org. Honored by the award, the principle cast sent the above acceptance video. The evening concluded with a live performance by a local Glee club that includes young people with and without disabilities. After the program and dinner finished, Fox sponsored the first ever after-party for Gala attendees to watch that evening's broadcast of Glee with Lauren.

Links to coverage of GLEE at the AAPD Gala in a number of news and media outlets are posted below:

March 10, 2011

The AAPD Gala sold out in record time this year. This news came as AAPD received final confirmation that Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will be presenting this year's Image Award after delivering his message around efforts to improve special education policy and address the issue of bullying in schools. The 2011 Image Award will be accepted in person by Lauren Potter who plays the character Becki Jackson on the Fox Television Series 'Glee.' Lauren has recently begun speaking out on the issue of disability bullying in schools. For more on her advocacy check out her YouTube Video (uncaptioned). This event promises to be a glamorous celebration of disability unity and strength.

For More on the AAPD Gala visit www.aapd.com/gala

On the Night of the Gala, participate remotely via twitter athttp://twitter.com/AAPD. We’ll be live tweeting from the 2011 AAPD Leadership Awards Gala on March 15! Join us on Twitter and follow the conversation about the Gala using #AAPDgala.

AAPD will not only be tweeting @AAPD, we will also be encouraging audience members, participants and members of the disability community to tweet from and about the Gala throughout the evening, so you can see what other people have to say about the event.

March 07, 2011

The Invisible Hate CrimeHate crimes against people with disabilities are widespread and often involve extraordinary levels of sadism. The first step in combating these shameful incidents is an acknowledgment that they exist.By Jack Levin

In February 2010, Jennifer Daugherty, a 30-year-old, mentally challenged woman from Greensburg, Pa., was brutally murdered by six people pretending to be her good friends...The sadistic attack on Daugherty was anything but unique. Still, few Americans are aware of the special vulnerability of people with emotional, intellectual and physical disabilities to extraordinary violence. Thinking of crimes inspired by hate or bias, most people conjure an image of a burning cross on the lawn of a black family, or swastikas scrawled on the walls of a synagogue...

But the same Americans may have legal and emotional “tunnel vision,” not seeing a hate crime in the brutal murder of Jennifer Daugherty, even though she was apparently singled out only because of her intellectual deficit.

...At the end of October 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, bringing a uniform approach to the protection of hate crime victims that was not possible when matters were left to the states. The Shepard/Byrd legislation expanded federal hate crimes law to include offenses motivated by a victim’s disability, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity...Still, attacks on people with disabilities are often overlooked because many people are not aware of the extreme vulnerability to maltreatment that accompanies such disorders as cerebral palsy, autism, multiple sclerosis, learning disabilities and mental illness — even though, according to anonymous victim accounts from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the 54 million Americans with disabilities experience serious violence at a rate nearly twice that of the general population...

...We don’t have to change the law on hate crimes against people with disabilities — that has already happened — but we must change the thinking of ordinary people who consider only race, religion or sexual orientation as grounds for bigotry. Many people with disabilities are harmed more by the way others treat them than by their intellectual, psychiatric or physical disadvantages. This unfortunate fact has been widely ignored by otherwise decent Americans, who, when they think of hate crimes, tend to focus on people wearing sheets, armbands, steel-toe boots or Nazi tattoos. It is easy to forget that hate begins in the silence of ordinary people.

A new study at Rochester Institute of Technology indicates that the incidence of maltreatment, including neglect and physical and sexual abuse, is more than 25 percent higher among deaf and hard-of-hearing children than among hearing youths. The research also shows a direct correlation between childhood maltreatment and higher rates of negative cognition, depression and post-traumatic stress in adulthood. The study, which was presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, is one of the first to compare childhood maltreatment between deaf and hearing children.

"By providing clear data on the high rate of childhood maltreatment in the deaf community, we hope to shine a light on the issue and provide mental-health professionals with the necessary data to better treat both children and adults suffering from mental and behavioral disorders," notes Lindsay Schenkel, assistant professor of psychology at RIT and director of the research team. The group, which also included undergraduate psychology student Danielle Burnash and Gail Rothman-Marshall, associate professor of liberal studies at RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf, conducted a survey of 425 college students, 317 hearing and 108 deaf, asking them to describe any maltreatment they had experienced prior to the age of 16.

Seventy-seven percent of deaf and hard-of-hearing respondents indicated experiencing some form of child maltreatment, compared with 49 percent among hearing respondents. In addition, respondents with more severe hearing loss indicated an increased rate and severity of maltreatment.

"Interestingly, having a deaf parent or a family member who signs, or being part of the deaf community, did not reduce the risk of childhood maltreatment," Burnash notes.

The team also found that deaf and hard-of-hearing respondents who had suffered maltreatment had higher rates of negative cognitions about themselves, others and the future compared with hearing individuals who had suffered maltreatment. The rate of depression and post-traumatic stress was also higher among all deaf and hard-of-hearing respondents regardless of maltreatment. Schenkel, Rothman-Marshall and Burnash plan to continue to examine the issue of child maltreatment in deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and the impact this has on mental-health functioning with the goal of developing standardized assessments and more effective treatments for this population.

"For example, our research shows that individuals who are active members of the deaf community report fewer depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms," Schenkel adds.

The research was funded by RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the U.S. Department of Education's McNair Scholars program. For further information, contact William Dube, Tel 585-475-2816 or Email wjduns@rit.edu

This item was distributed by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), more at http://www.nvrc.org and was selected from Ascribe, The Public Interest Newswire, 1/18/11.

January 02, 2011

From the International Coalition for Autism and All Abilities (ICAA) (12.27.10):

ICAA in Mother Jones

by Emily Malabey

Part of advocacy is sometimes taking a stand on an issue whether it is comfortable, popular, or not. In 2010, the ICAA issued a public statement about the Judge Rotenberg Center. When something is being done to a group of people based on their differences in ability, such as what is reportedly happening at the Judge Rotenberg Center, many of us feel called to take a stand. The United Nations has called on the Obama Administration and others to look into what has been called “torture” occurring at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts...

Autism advocates are following up on a DOJ investigation of the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), a private Massachusetts school that punishes some autistic, ..., and emotionally troubled students with electric shocks. The Judge Rotenberg Center, whose practices were recently condemned by the UN as "torture," will be the subject of a radio interview between the International Coalition for Autism and all Abilities (ICAA) and Massachusetts state senator Brian Joyce...

November 22, 2010

Three Men Charged in Albuquerque, N.M., with Federal Hate Crimes Related to Assault of Disabled Navajo Man

A federal grand jury indicted three men in Albuquerque, N.M., on federal hate crime charges related to a racially-motivated assault of a 22-year-old man of Navajo descent who has a significant cognitive impairment.

Paul Beebe, 27, William Hatch, 29, and Jesse Sanford, 25, all of Farmington, N.M., have been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was enacted in October 2009. More specifically, the indictment alleges that the defendants branded the victim by heating a wire hanger on a stove and burning the victim’s flesh, causing a permanent swastika-shaped scar on his arm. It is alleged that as part of the plan and purpose of their conspiracy, the defendants further defaced the victim’s body with white supremacist and anti-Native American symbols, including shaving a swastika in the back of the victim’s head and using marker to write the words "KKK" and "White Power" within the lines of the swastika. The indictment also alleges that the defendants took advantage of the victim’s developmental disability to induce him to make a cell phone video in which he purportedly consents to the branding.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Albuquerque Division in cooperation with the Farmington Police Department and the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roberto D. Ortega for the District of New Mexico and Special Litigation Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Fara Gold of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

October 30, 2010

Today, the Department of Education issued guidance to support educators in combating bullying in schools by clarifying when student bullying may violate federal education anti-discrimination laws. The guidance issued today also makes clear that while current laws enforced by the department do not protect against harassment based on religion or sexual orientation, they do include protection against harassment of members of religious groups based on shared ethnic characteristics as well as gender and sexual harassment of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender individuals. The guidance, which comes in the form of a "Dear Colleague" letter sent to schools, colleges and universities, explains educators' legal obligations to protect students from student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment. The letter provides examples of harassment and illustrates how a school should respond in each case. The White House and Department of Education also announced next steps to address bullying and harassment in schools. Early next year, the White House will host a conference to raise awareness and equip young people, parents, educators, coaches and other community leaders with tools to prevent bullying and harassment. This conference will build upon efforts led by the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies to spark a dialogue on the ways in which communities can come together to prevent bullying and harassment. "We've got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage, or an inevitable part of growing up. It's not," said President Obama. "We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe for all of our kids. Every single young person deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and achieve their potential, without having to worry about the constant threat of harassment." "Bullying is a problem that shouldn't exist. No one should ever feel harassed or unsafe in a school simply because they act or think or dress differently than others," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "To every student who feels threatened or harassed -- for whatever reason -- please know that you are not alone. Please know that there are people who love you. And please know that we will protect you," Duncan continued. "Students cannot learn if they feel threatened or harassed," said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Russlynn Ali. "We want to keep students safe and learning, and today's guidance will help us do that." Following the release of today's guidance, the Department plans to hold technical assistance workshops around the country in early 2011 to help educators better understand their obligations and the resources available to take prompt and effective steps that will end harassment and bullying in schools and on college campuses.

The guidance issued today is just one of several efforts in the Department of Education's comprehensive approach to end bullying. In 2009, the Department joined the Departments of Defense, Justice, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and the Interior to form the Obama Administrations Inter-Agency Task Force on Bullying. In August of this year, the Obama administration hosted the first ever National Bullying Summit and launched both the Stop Bulling Now campaign and www.bullyinginfo.org, a national database of effective anti-bullying programs. For more information about OCR and the anti-discrimination statutes that it enforces, please visit http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/aboutocr.html. To review the "Dear Colleague" letter, please visit: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201010.html.###

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geyAFbSDPVkhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/21/president-obama-it-gets-betterPresident Obama: It Gets BetterPosted by Brian Bond on October 21, 2010 at 11:30 PM EDT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geyAFbSDPVkRecently, several young people have taken their own lives after being bullied for being gay – or perceived as being gay – by their peers. Their deaths are shocking and heartbreaking tragedies. No one should have to endure relentless harassment or tormenting. No one should ever feel so alone or desperate that they feel have nowhere to turn. We each share a responsibility to protect our young people. And we also have an obligation to set an example of respect and kindness, regardless of our differences.We all have a responsibility to protect all of our children. But we also have an obligation to set an example of respect and kindness regardless of our differences. This is personal to me. When I was a young adult, I faced the jokes and taunting that too many of our youth face today, and I considered suicide as a way out. But I was fortunate. One of my co-workers recognized that I was hurting, and I soon confided in her. She cared enough to push me to seek help. She saved my life. I will always be grateful for her compassion and support – the same compassion and support that so many kids need today. In the wake of these terrible tragedies, thousands of Americans have come together to share their stories of hope and encouragement for LGBT youth who are struggling as part of the It Gets Better Project . Their messages are simple: no matter how difficult or hopeless life may seem when you’re a young person who’s been tormented by your peers or feels like you don’t fit in: life will get better.President Obama is committed to ending bullying, harassment and discrimination in all its forms in our schools and communities. That’s why he recorded this message.Last year, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services joined forces with four other departments to create a federal task force on bullying. In August 2010, the task force staged the first-ever National Bullying Summit, bringing together 150 top state, local, civic, and corporate leaders to begin mapping out a national plan to end bullying. The task force also launched a new website, www.bullyinginfo.org, which brings all the federal resources on bullying together in one place for the first time ever. If you’re a young person who’s been bullied or harassed by your peers, or you’re a parent or teacher who knows a young person being bullied or harassed, here are a few resources that can help you:The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is determined to end suicide among LBGTQ youth by providing resources and a nationwide, 24 hour hotline. If you are considering suicide or need help, call: 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386).BullyingInfo.org

BullyingInfo.org is a project of the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP) focused on providing tools and resources for youth, parents, teachers and mental health providers to prevent and address bullying. It Gets Better Project

This Halloween weekend, NPR has posted a piece by commentator, Ben Mattlin, where he describes feeling targeted as a person with difference by the festivities. In conversations, I’ve had with friends and colleagues with disabilities, the idea has been put forward that Halloween is a time where difference is accepted and even celebrated. What is your experience? Are disabilities perceived differently around Halloween? If so, how?

Read or listen to Ben Mattlin’s story “On Halloween, Celebrating Differences Of All Types” and post your thoughts below.

From NPR (10.28.10):

On Halloween, Celebrating Differences Of All Types

Commentator Ben Mattlin never looks forward to Halloween. He says having a highly visible disability can make the holiday feel odd and unsettling.

I never thought about a connection between disabilities and Halloween until I learned of the once-common fear of deformities — the limping, hunchbacked, hook-handed or one-eyed monsters of ancient fairy tales and old horror movies. Even the word "creepy" comes from the same word as the oldest term for folks like me, the politically incorrect "cripple."…

…Yet as an adult, I began to feel uneasy about the creepy exhibitionism of Halloween, the way it encourages staring at all things weird. I can't help wondering if Halloween doesn't promote ridiculing differences — even a kind of conformity. Yes, I know, for most people Halloween is an escape from conformity, but for those of us who don't quite fit the norm, that's nothing special. In fact, demonstrating that you're not exactly what people expect is pretty much what disabled folks do every day…

October 25, 2010

Lawsuit filed: nearly 25 years to build a mental health service for special education students and the Governor erases it overnight

Los Angeles, CA – A class action lawsuit to preserve lifeline services for more than 20,000 students was filed today in federal court by Public Counsel, Disability Rights California, Mental Health Advocacy Services and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. For almost 25 years California has been providing critical “AB 3632” services through county mental health departments to special education students who need mental health support to stay in school. The services include crisis counseling, case management, medication management and residential placement.On October 8, Governor Schwarzenegger severed the system with his line-item veto, without even bothering to offer perfunctory regrets.Announcing the lawsuit, Laura Faer of Public Counsel said, “While the adults quibble about who is responsible –for funding, for services, for this entire mess—it is the children who are harmed. In the midst of this chaos, we are stepping up to fight for their continuity of care.”Jim Preis of Mental Health Advocacy Services reported: “One student precipitously cut off from care is Andrew, a 17 year old who was adopted from the foster care system when he was 2 and ½ following exposure to fetal alcohol and drugs. He was hospitalized following suicide attempts. Finally, the appropriate services for Andrew were lined up through Los Angeles County Mental Health. Because of the veto, he is now stuck in juvenile hall without the services he needs.”“Since the Governor blue-penciled the services, our phones have been ringing across the state,” said Candis Bowles of Disability Rights California. “Parents are scared about what will happen next. We’ve had calls about kids who no longer get services designed to keep them in the community.There are children ready to leave institutions but can’t because the support services are gone.”Counsel in the case also described the situation of Loni, a 6th grader whose residential placement has enabled her to continue schooling, and to receive her first positive evaluations in a long time. As a result of the cuts, Loni is about to lose her residential placement. Andrew, Loni and tens of thousands of other students are facing: deterioration of their mental health, re-hospitalization and interrupted schooling.John Sharer of Gibson Dunn stated, “We are sure that many of the legislators who are disability rights champions will be working toward a fix of this unacceptable situation. In the meantime, we are bringing suit to prevent the interruption of critical mental health services for the thousands of students who need them.”Watch www.disabilityrightsca.org for documents and updates regarding this case.______________________________________________________________________________________Public Counsel, founded in 1970, is the nation’s largest pro bono law office, working on behalf of low-income children, youth, adults and families (www.publiccounsel.org)Mental Health Advocacy Services is a non-profit organization providing free legal services to more than 3000 children and adults annually (www.mhas-la.org)Disability Rights California, founded in 1978, positively impacts at least 50,000 Californians a year through its advocacy, lawsuits, investigations and trainings (www.disabilityrightsca.org)Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLB is a global law firm with more than 1000 lawyers working in 17 offices in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America (www.gibsondunn.com)

Frankie Mastrangelo is the moderator for both the Justice For All (JFA) national email listerv as well as for the JFActivist blog. She is also an organizer for the American Association of People with Disabilities in Washington, D.C.